


Which Makes Us Blessed

by poisontaster



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: F/M, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-07
Updated: 2008-04-07
Packaged: 2018-02-14 07:05:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2182464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poisontaster/pseuds/poisontaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Max is in heat and Alec is involved.  Takes place after "Freak Nation", but no actual spoilers</p>
            </blockquote>





	Which Makes Us Blessed

**Author's Note:**

> _A friend in need's a friend indeed,_  
>  A friend with weed is better;  
> A friend with breasts and all the rest,  
> A friend who's dressed in leather.  
> ~Placebo "Pure Morning"

Max asks him and he wants to run away.

Alec makes no bones about running away from things. He hasn't survived as long as he has on anything as stupid or evanescent as pride. Alec is _all about_ survival.

But this… This doesn't threaten his survival, really. He's not quite sure why it feels like it does.

He's not unaware that Max is a tight little package. And it's not like he's never entertained the notion. They were breeding partners, right? A certain level of fantasizing is really necessary to get the job done. But Alec also likes to keep a firm line between his fantasy and his real life. Saves wear and tear on the old equipment that way.

"Max, I…" And now he's stammering. What the hell? "I can't."

The burn of her eyes hurts. Max, unlike Alec, lives on her pride and he knows it cost her a bit of something to come to him this way, hat in hand. It also means something to him that she did. He and Max, they haven't always been on the easiest ground and Alec doesn't suppose he's done much to help it along.

"Alec…" Max sways forward, unsteady, and drags her fingers down his arm, her eyes following the motion like she's hungry. "There isn't anyone else."

He can _smell_ her. Sweet little cat DNA, scrambling his brain, scrambling his dick until he can hardly think through the urge to pounce, to scratch and bite and _take_. But he's not an animal. He's not Manticore's toy. And for him…. "There is," he says, almost stumbling over his feet to back away from her, clear his head from the thrumming pulse of Max's need. "There _is_ someone for me, Max. I don't…." He shakes his head, his slick patter all deserting him in the face of this new, uncomfortable nakedness between them. "I can't."

He flees.

"Alec…" she calls after him, soft, like she doesn't want anyone to hear. But she doesn't follow.

He hates himself a little for fleeing to Joshua. He's not the kind of guy who needs comfort, who needs to lean on anyone else. He's clearly still fueled by his gonads, because he and Joshua…they might sleep in the same place but it's sex. That's all. Sex. Joshua needs all the nuzzling and holding and crap and Alec puts up with it because Joshua's kind of _amazing_ in bed, but that's all there is to it. And he's just shivering because it's cold. There's no insulation in the house Joshua picked for himself and it's always damp and cold.

Except when Joshua holds him, giving off that warm, furnace heat.

That's all it is. That's _all_.

The whole stupid story comes spilling out of him to Joshua's encouragement. Max in heat. The proposition. He knows why she came to him; there are plenty of X-series around in Terminal City and he's sure any one of them would be more than happy to service her, smelling like she does. But him.

"She thinks she can control me." Alec's lip curls even as he says it. He's no lapdog, especially not Max's.

"She trusts you," Joshua corrects, because he's a big dope that thinks the best about everybody.

And then Joshua tells him it's okay.

Alec didn't want this. If he looks down into the deep, ugly hole in the center of him, it scares him. Not that he's scared. Not that he gets scared. Not that he's scared of Max. But he doesn't want this. He's worked out a pretty good routine, him and Max and him and Joshua. It all kind of _works_ now. And even him and Logan have been known to go a whole evening without drama.

Alec… Alec sort of _likes_ the way things are now.

And this could change everything.

Alec doesn't even _know_ how Logan gets involved in the whole thing. Doesn't want to know. But the whole thing takes on this weird sense of ritual, like something in one of those paintings. The gold of the lamplight slides over Max's skin, turning her brighter, richer, bringing out colors that don't show in sunlight or dark.

He's aware of Logan and he wants to put on a show. He's aware of Joshua and he just wants to get it over with.

"Alec…" Max shifts restlessly on the makeshift bed, dark eyes indistinct and soft. It looks more like pain than anything and Alec doesn't know what to do with that, where to put it. He doesn't know what to do with his hands, either, like this is his first time, his first girl. This is Max, the original Hands-Off-Girl and now she wants him to… He's going to…

"I trust you," she says and it falls into Alec like a stone, making him still around it.

The irony is that the training that made this a necessity is what gets him through this. Alec turns off his brain and let's his body do what it wants to do. What it needs to do, the scent of Max around him like a cloud of perfume. Max is quiet—so strangely quiet—but not passive, gouging the skin from his shoulders, his sides; rolling them over and pushing him down, teeth bared. Alec tips his head back and bares his throat, letting her ride him to her finish.

Her eyes close when she comes, back arched, head thrown back. "Logan," she whispers and Alec hears Logan's fingers tighten on the wood of his chair. He hears it when Logan gets up and stumbles quietly from the room.

Alec lies under her. He doesn't have anything to say, no comeback for this. The tight clench-pulse of her muscles around him—still hard—is almost enough, but not quite. It's weird. He's never been ambivalent about orgasm before.

Max's eyes open and she looks down at him, framed in the hanging curtain of her hair. "Alec." She says it like she would say _thanks_ —if Max ever said any such thing—and Alec knows that's exactly what it is.

"Not finished yet." Max smiles.

Alec wants to say _no_ , wants to say _don't_. But he doesn't. Of course he doesn't.

Max's fingers brush across his face, almost tender…and then she moves, sliding herself on his cock, clutching, clenching until the friction's too much and he's arching up into her, spilling into the condom.

Alec doesn't do names; he's too well trained for that, not to mention it's such an absurdly romantic thing to do and Alec is a practical man. It echoes through his head anyway: _Joshua. Joshua._

And that seems fair enough.  


**Author's Note:**

> That was the story, this is the ramble. This didn't come out quite like I wanted it to, but I was under a time constraint and I wanted to make sure I told the whole story-in-my-head. There's a part of me that would like to flesh this out into something fuller, richer. Realistically, though, I don't know that I will.
> 
> Max-in-heat and especially Max/Alec heat stories seem like such a staple of the fandom, from the little I've seen from my spectator's seat up here in the nosebleed section…I don't know that I really have anything new or interesting to say about it, but there are some ideas I really like in this scenario.
> 
> First of all, I really think there ISN'T much of anyone else Max could trust with this. Logan's not an option because of the virus. Finding an anonymous hook up is pretty difficult for Max at this juncture and I doubt she—or anyone on her side—would condone her risking getting caught by Ames or anyone else just to go get her itch scratched. And I think that, their differences aside, Max would trust Alec to be reasonably discreet about it, at least in public. So it gives her the opportunity to keep this embarrassing interlude on the down low.
> 
> I like the idea that while Max doesn't have anyone else, for a change, Alec DOES and that, his denials to the contrary aside, Alec is genuinely worried about what that would do to his and Joshua's relationship.
> 
> I think that Joshua is absolutely the most forgiving character on the show, and I think he would understand and not be jealous in that way about Alec helping out Max. In fact, I can see him being actively encouraging, because it's all between pack anyway, right?
> 
> And I like the idea—which I really didn't get to touch on here—of Logan, still emotionally tied in, unable to stay away, but unable to fully stand it at the same time, watching Alec service Max in this way that he can't. It's something he'd like to be able to give to her and he can't. And he may never be able to. But at the same time, there's a level of trust and a level of…commitment, for lack of a better word, in Max asking him to be there. She's showing that she's being above board and that this is a necessity, not an affair.
> 
> So yes. It's not exactly how I'd like it to be, but the scenario, while clichéd, pleases me.
> 
> Voila.


End file.
